The Israeli army announced on Saturday morning that it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
In a statement published on Saturday, the Israeli army said it had "conducted a targeted strike on the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah terrorist organization" saying that this was located under residential buildings in the Dahieh area of south Beirut.
It claimed that it had killed Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for 32. Hezbollah has yet to issue any statement on the Israeli claims.
Israel launched airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs and other areas of Lebanon on Saturday, after launching a massive attack on Hezbollah's headquarters on Friday evening that appeared to be aimed at killing Nasrallah.
Israel hit Beirut with more than 20 airstrike before dawn on Saturday and more after sunrise. Smoke could be seen rising over the Dahieh area of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Thousands of people have fled the area since Friday's attack, congregating in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.
Friday's attack was by far the most ferocious by Israel on the city during the conflict with Hezbollah that has played out in parallel to the Gaza war for nearly a year.
Israeli forces also carried out strikes in the Palestinian territory during the night, the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency reported.
Two people were killed and 11 were wounded in an air strike that targeted a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the civil defence agency said.
Israeli forces have killed Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the military's Arabic-speaking spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on Saturday, a day after an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
"Hassan Nasrallah is dead," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced on X.
Military spokesman Captain David Avraham also confirmed to news agency AFP that the Hezbollah chief had been "eliminated" following strikes Friday on the Lebanese capital.
Smoke rose from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday morning and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes.
Explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, with flames lighting up the pre-dawn darkness.
Fire raged from at least one location, and smoke and flames were seen from above Beirut early Saturday. Residents reported jets flying overhead.
In a short statement, the Israeli military described the sites it hit as belonging to Hezbollah. Authorities there did not immediately acknowledge if there were any casualties.
According to news reports, shelters set up in the city center for people displaced by the onslaught were overflowing.
Many families slept in public squares and beaches, or in their cars.
On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.
A massive airstrike in south Beirut this evening. Past airstrikes on the southern suburbs have occurred without many people inside Beirut proper hearing it. Literally everybody I know says the explosion rattled their homes, even deep into the city.
— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek)
Patients in hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs will be evacuated to medical centers in the capital and the nearby Mount Lebanon region, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.
In a statement carried by state news agency early Saturday, the ministry called on hospitals in Beirut and Mount Lebanon to stop receiving cases that can be delayed in order to receive patients evacuating from the hard-hit southern suburb Dahiyeh.
The ministry’s decision came after a night of Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, a predominantly Shiite district.
The ministry also called on hospitals and medical centers to care for ill people who fled Dahiyeh overnight as a result of the airstrikes.
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